Full Notes: The Chase
Full Notes: The Chase
Undermining your main monster is never a good idea.
Plot Summary
The Doctor and his companions must continually evade the murderous Daleks, who are in hot pursuit of the TARDIS in their own time machine.
Notable for:
First time the TARDIS is shown “in flight,” though not spinning.
William Russell and Jacqueline Hill each independently decided to leave the show, which upset Hartnell.
Final appearance by William Russell until The Power of the Doctor.
This is the first time the Daleks shout the singular “Exterminate!” as a battle cry. (They had said “Exterminate him!” and talked about exterminating various folks in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but never just “Exterminate!”)
First time the Daleks have “slats.”
First story to depict the enmity between the Daleks and Doctor. The Daleks are aware of who the Doctor is, and set out to destroy him.
More budget than usual was allocated for this story, which made The Space Museum and The Time Meddler cheaper.
The “lost for a period in an area of human thought” concept was the original idea for the segment, but Verity Lambert vetoed Nation’s concept.
The Mechanoids were intended to be a recurring, popular monster. They were given their own press launch and rights to manufacture toys were made available. They never returned since they were so difficult to operate. (And it’s fair to say they didn’t catch on.)
The Daleks are intentionally played for laughs in places: Nodding eye stalks, stuttering, “No, YOU destroy,” etc.
The Beatles segment has been excised from most digital copies because of rights issues. (It’s available on Daily Motion.) It’s ironically some of the only surviving footage of the Beatles on Top of the Pops since most of the tapes were wiped. On the Blu-ray, Vicki begins to set the machine to 1965 when they are interrupted by the materialization, but on BritBox, the entire segment is gone. The Beatles are referred to as “classical” music in 42.
Original idea was to show the Beatles as old men, performing a 50th anniversary concert, but this was (thankfully) vetoed by their manager Brian Epstein.
Peter Purves hadn’t been cast as Steven Taylor when he played Morton Dill.
The Chase would have been the basis of a third Cushing film, but it was never made.
The woman jumping off the Mary Celeste with a baby is the first time Doctor Who has depicted the death of a child.
Pete commentary:
I haven’t seen The Chase in decades, but I’m surprised how much I enjoyed seeing it again. Full disclosure: It was a favorite in my house when I was growing up, with my brother, sister and myself watching it multiple times. I’m very familiar with all of the story beats and most of the dialogue. Over the years, though, I became more aware of fan criticism of the story, so I avoided thinking about it too much. But in my view it holds up as a fast-paced romp that you shouldn’t think too hard about. It’s essentially the summer blockbuster of ‘60s Doctor Who, and how much you like big-budget popcorn flicks that are thin on plot will probably affect how much you like The Chase.
Scene 1: “Viewers, you were waiting for Daleks? Here’s some Daleks! Enjoy!”
Love all the human chat-chat and character building in the opening scene in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Ian getting annoyed with Vicki (to be fair, she’s pretty annoying, but kids sometimes need attention), Barbara making a dress for her, and then Vicki getting to show off her future knowledge/taste (w/ the Beatles being “classical” music). This is fun stuff, and emphasizes they’ve become a family. It’s scenes like this that make the final departure of Ian and Barbara hit harder.
The “Time television” is a wild little device. You’d think the Doctor would use it more after this, but you never see it again. It must have gotten destroyed? Story-wise, it would be a massive cheat to simply be able to tune into the moment in the past of whatever mystery they’re trying to solve, so it makes sense. And to be fair, they didn’t TOTALLY forget about this kind of technology: Judging from The Trial of a Time Lord, the Time Lords use it pretty routinely.
The device of using the Time TV to see the Daleks is pretty inventive. And it’s a cute callback that they use it to check on Ian and Barbara in Episode 6.
Whoever named the planet Aridius definitely knew something the rest of the people there didn’t. Or did they rename it from “Oceanus” after those suns got closer?
The location shooting for Aridius looks nice. I like the seaweed “statues” that get your head in an alien place.
“Not THAT awful noise,” is one of the few jokes that actually lands! And they get good mileage out of it: “I could charm the nightingales out of the trees.” LOL
The ring in the sand and bits of Vicki’s backstory are obvious script padding. That said, the characters make the most of it — you get the sense Maureen O’Brien and William Russell really liked each other.
The Dalek rising from the sand doesn’t look as bad as its reputation, but you immediately start to wonder why it’s making an “ick” noise. The humor gets worse from here.
Ian’s line to Vicki to “Don't just stand there and scream, you little fool. Run!” is a great, borderline-breaking-the-fourth-wall line, where he speaks for every viewer. Vicki’s line back at him is a bit of an extraneous even-up call, but we’ll allow it.
Let’s talk about the Dalek silliness: It’s not like humor is an alien thing in Dalek stories (see, “Anyone for Dodge-’ems?”), but here it’s not just making light of deadly situations. The humor here is highlighting how goofy and/or incompetent the Daleks are, basically turning their timeship into a clown car. Every “look how dumb they are” makes it harder to take them seriously as villains, which is generally not good. It might we worth it if the jokes actually landed, but each line has a “wa-wa” quality that just makes you cringe
Inadvertent humor: When the Daleks declare their robot is a “paramount success” at duplication when it clearly looks nothing like the First Doctor. This honestly was incomprehensible to me: Why didn’t they just use Hartnell for those scenes?! You only need his double for when they’re both onscreen, yet they repeatedly show Edmund Warwick even when it’s just the robot alone (though they’re not consistent about that either). “Is that supposed to be the Doctor?” asked Grace.
The Doctor’s line “We’re trying to defeat the Daleks, not start a jumble sale,” is another joke that lands. There are more than you remember!
Reference to the Daleks not liking stairs — never a good idea. Don’t make your audience think about why they can’t climb them. Plus, if it’s true, why not just go straight up the stairs as soon as you get there? Daleks defeated, done!
The final bit where Ian mocks the Dalek voice is pretty bad, too, but at least that comes at the end, when all the action and tension is over.
Dill openly laughing at the Dalek that confronts him could have been worse. We are at least made to feel that this guy is playing with fire as he mocks its way of speaking and fiddles with its gun. The clear implication is that the Dalek is THIS CLOSE to just shooting the guy.
The Mary Celeste sequence is pretty fun. Vicki clobbering Ian is one of the better gags that lands (“I like this!” Grace said at that point). However, this story shows the same trope as Legend of the Sea Devils — being able to somehow go unnoticed in an environment as small as a sailing ship.
Why does that one Dalek dive into the ocean? Dalek see, Dalek do? And why don’t the other Daleks care?
The House of Horrors bit is quite a bit silly. Today you’d do this much more ironically. What does work, though, is the Doctor’s arrogance at thinking he’s figured out where they are, which the Daleks then take advantage of. It’s a nice transition from, “They can’t touch us in the human mind,” to in the next moment, “We’ve found them!”
The Daleks lose one of their own in Aridius, another on the Mary Celeste, and another at the House of Horrors. You almost think the Doctor et al. could just wear them down, one by one rather than “stop and fight.”
When the Doctor, Ian and Barbara are convinced they left Vicki behind, the stakes get pushed higher. Plot-wise, it also nicely sets up the end: They had clear designs on capturing and operating the Dalek time machine, so why not use it for themselves? Good bit of writing here.
That said, it’s too bad the script doesn’t take advantage to change the tone to something more serious. The Daleks are still goofballs (“No, YOU destroy!” the nodding eye stalks, “Check my hair — did the fungoid mess it up?”), and Barbara’s gun noises in the cave are totally stupid.
The Mechanoids are kinda cool, mostly because they’re so big! They’d be ambitious, even for today. I like that they have a weird-ass way of speaking, and don’t just shout “Destroy” or whatever. If they were to continue, it would have been interesting to reason out their language a bit. I like that they just make machine noises to each other.
Peter Purves is much better at Steven Taylor than Morton Dill (though points for really going for the hayseed portrayal). He gives a believable performance of a guy who’s been all alone, and a prisoner, for 2 years. His “Wilson moment” of going back for Hi-Fi is one of those OMG moments, but it’s perfectly within character, given the hints of mania in his first scene.
Vicki isn’t “very good on heights,” which adds a nice bit of tension in the final sequences as they rush to get down the cable. It’s very relatable (lots of people aren’t good on heights), and Maureen O’Brien does a good job portraying how such panic can render one useless. If you’ve ever been around someone who has a serious phobia, the portrayal isn’t far off.
Those living fungoids aren’t the worst monster (though close), but Vicki isn’t well served when she chooses to scream about them. And even though she’s good at the heights thing, that and her panic don’t serve the character well.
GREAT battle sequence between the Mechanoids and the Daleks. Super fun stuff, and not too long. Excellent that they just show a close-up of the eye stalk at one point.
Question that comes up in the context of the rest of Doctor Who: How come we never see the Daleks using TARDIS-like technology again? In fact, in Doomsday, when the Doctor realizes the Genesis Ark is bigger on the inside, he instantly recognizes it as “Time Lord science,” not Dalek. This converges on an agreed-upon retcon: That the Daleks either stole this tech from the Time Lords, or were provided it (presumably by the Master or someone equally nefarious).
It’s fun to see the Daleks using different tools on their sucker arm. The preceptor thingie actually looks like it’s doing something, though the big radar dish is a bit “meh.” Aesthetically the Daleks are now optimized: the “slats” were a good call, negating that big silly dish on their backs from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Also: static electricity isn’t even mentioned, which is a positive development. It was always scientifically silly, and it only works when it’s a nostalgic reference.
Early hint that the TARDIS is indestructible: The Dalek “neutralizers” don’t affect the “material” it’s made out of. (“Wood?” Grace asked me.)
That said, why don’t the Dalek weapons affect the robots at the fun fair? Presumably, they calibrate their weapons to organic or inorganic targets. The “massive internal displacement” is what they do to people when the whole negative/skeleton thing happens, which makes sense, since there’s not a mark on them. When they attack the Mechanoids at the end, they readjust for robot enemies, and are able to destroy them. They simply mistook the fun-fair robots for real people.
“Eradicate! Obliterate! Annihilate!” OK, now you’re just saying words that rhyme with exterminate.
The Doctor says he “constructed” the “ship” (the TARDIS). Either he’s lying, or he means the Time Path Detector specifically.
“London, 1965!” Ian and Barbara returning to Earth, enjoying their freedom, and fondly remembering their time with the Doctor while clearly on a path toward becoming a couple (which comes to fruition in the comic “Hunters of the Burning Stone”) is quite good. Hartnell is barely acting here — his wistfulness in the final scene is heartfelt, and you’re right there with him. The series started off strong with Ian and Barbara as companions: They were both flawed but well realized characters. One of the most memorable leaving scenes, for sure.
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace liked it. She thought it was fun.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Chris asked for something lite; you got it! Plus, in our gifts episode, we had discussed including Barbara’s gift to Vicki (don’t think it made the cut).
What if the evil plot had succeeded? The plot is to kill the Doctor and his companions, so if it succeeds, end of show. When would it have succeeded? Shoot sooner in the House of Horrors is probably the best opportunity (you assume the TARDIS is in the way on Aridius). Or just don’t wait all night to attack the cave on Mechanus.
Where's the Clara splinter? Chief programmer of the Ghana exhibit in 1996, making sure the Frankenstein robot goes out of its way to harm the visitors. That gets the exhibit shut down by “Peking” (?).
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? While I defend The Chase as better than its reputation, how much its flaws ruin the story depends a lot on your expectations. As a breezy, fun adventure with the Daleks, you could do a lot worse, and I’d highly recommend this one to families and kids (assuming they can stomach the ’60 production values. Ultimately, though, it’s not a great use of the Daleks, undermining their threat several times in the story. I really like this story, but I admit a lot of that’s probably nostalgia. This is why we invented the rating… Fixed Point in Time
Chris commentary:
Old Beatles performing in the studio may be the biggest missed opportunity in the history of the show. Damn you Brian Epstein! (Love you Brian Epstein.) Something they would return to in animated form in Yellow Submarine's "When I'm 64" – a song Paul had already written, one of his earliest, he could have pulled it out here … was supposed to be a 50th anniversary concert, so depending on the anniversary of what – 2013? Who knew there would only be two of them then … :(
John encountered a Dalek in Cannes in 1965
"Destroy and rejoice" may be the weirdest thing the Daleks ever say. Rejoice? How do Daleks rejoice? Like a party? Now that's an episode I want to see …
I was wonderfully unspoiled on almost all of this, especially Peter Purves' double appearance. I kind of like it, even though it's cringe (British actors defaulting to a southern accent when playing Americans is kind of a trope). It kind of works because Purves has the genuine credulousness of a hayseed, he's not mocking …
The Dalek eyestalk doing a 360 around him may be the funniest, most technically proficient moment in the whole thing.
But wait. Ian and Barbara could have left the TARDIS in New York in 1966. Just walked out of the Empire state and figured a passage to London. Wasn't that close enough?
The Mary Celeste may be the weirdest tonal shift, especially as we see Captain Briggs' wife and kid jumping to their deaths. If you're going for funny, as you are with the Dalek a second later, why even include them?
Also, why go with the trope of Barbara being threatened (with … rape?) especially as there was already a woman on the ship?
True history of the MC – they probably rowed away from a potential explosion with the alcohol vapors. Kudos to Who for "Mary" rather than "Marie," the latter invented by Arthur Conan Doyle in his anonymous story.
The whole concept of a chase through time doesn't make sense if you think about it for too long, and the trouble is we're made to think about it too many times. There's one mention in NYC of the TARDIS computers needing 12 minutes to calculate the next destination, which could have been really interesting if they'd stuck with that ticking clock every time they land, and the TARDIS crew becomes exhausted, nearer to making mistakes that the sleepless Daleks wouldn't make – something like Battlestar Galactica's brilliant "33" episode.
Otherwise there doesn't seem to be any reason to make a stand anywhere. The top of any set of stairs? But LOL at the fact that they finally choose … a corridor.
If you squint hard and consider it as a meta-commentary on DW and the success of the Daleks, a deliberate anti-story, it's brilliant. But that's clearly not what they were going for.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Upcoming Beatles, so a temporary Beatles bingo. The T-shirt! Wanted to give me something light, but still torturing me with the need for a history corner. Taking us back to the Time Meddler, filling in the curious bits of the plot. Appropriately doing it backwards. Bring on the Space Museum!
What if the evil plot had succeeded? No Time War? The DARDIS destroys Gallifrey (hey, if the Master can do it …) and conquers all of time and space. Rejoice!
Where's the Clara splinter? She's running that funfair in Ghana in 1996, and specifically designed that Frankenstein's Monster to be powerful enough to lift and smash a Dalek.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Ep 1: Hayter, purely for the Beatles (Hayter-Ogron in the version without them). Ep 2: Ogron. Ep 3: Hayter-Dalek. Ep 4: Hayter. Ep 5: Hayter-Ogron. Ep 6: Dalek. So … Hayter 3, Ogron 1.5, Dalek 1.5. Gonna say that's an overall Hayter.